Why Mongolia? What's the draw for me? Well, here's the story. It takes place over a span of at least 7 years, so it's a long one...but a good one I think. Then again, I'm obviously biased. In any case, find a warm sunny window and a comfy chair and listen in...
My story begins when I was around 15 or 16 years old I think. I don't remember the year, but I was in early high school for sure. So let's say the year was around 2003. You should know that I grew up in Rochester, MN. I am, and always will be proud to be a Minnesotan! I am also proud of being from Rochester, home of the world renown Mayo Clinic. Consequently, I grew up in a strongly medical community - many of my friends had at least one parent who was a doctor or nurse of some sort.
There were also many medical professionals in my church there. Our church sent numerous groups overseas, mostly to developing countries to 1) share who Jesus was with the people there and encourage our brothers and sisters in the local churches there and 2) provide some sort of physical need tor communities there. (Some will be familiar calling these trips "mission trips") Most of the time, we were able to send medical teams to different regions of the world. After all, we had a plethora of talented doctors willing to give of their time and skills and there is a huge need for high quality medical care around the world.
However. There was one problem that started growing in the back of my mind. I didn't want to help people medically. I wanted to care for animals in veterinary medicine. Don't get me wrong...I'm not opposed to human medicine in any way in the least! It's just that I have never been passionate about human medicine. My heart, who I am at the core, has always always wanted to be a veterinarian. However, if I was in a situation where I had to rescue a person or my cat (who I really love a lot)...I'd rescue the person first without any questions. I believe that people are made in the image of God...meaning there's something special about us that reflects who God is that isn't in the animal world. And yet...in my heart of hearts, I had no interest in human medicine. I began the think, perhaps I was wasting my intellectual talents and time on animals. Surely God would approve more of me helping people right? Was it even ok that I wanted to care for animals? I saw all the medical teams from my church travelling abroad and making a difference in the world, and I began to feel as though I was somehow selfish...or that something was wrong with me because I wanted to spend my life's talents pursuing the betterment of animal health. I felt as though I had to justify my heart's desire.
And so, I hatched a brilliant idea. My "logic" went something like this: People who were "missionaries", people who went into cross cultural situations in order to tell others about the freedom and peace Jesus brings, those people were respected in church circles. No questions asked they were doing something beautiful. If I decided to thus become a veterinarian overseas with a joint goal of sharing who Jesus was with the communities around me, then presto! I wouldn't have to explain to church people why I was a veterinarian and not a human doctor. It didn't matter if they thought my career choice was lesser in some way, it was justified if I shared Jesus.
So. My next step was to have a conversation with God about this. I say "conversation" but in all reality, it was completely one sided. Basically I informed God what was going to happen in my life. It went almost exactly like this:
Me: "God. I feel like I can't be a vet here because people are more important to you and that would be a waste of my talents. So I am going to be a veterinarian overseas for the rest of my life so I can share who you are and your love with the people I meet. Oh...but I'm not going anywhere tropical; too many bugs, too hot, no snow and winter. Um...also, not going to Africa or the Middle East; too dangerous, too many diseases, too many gross bugs, no snow and winter. Um...so...hey, I'm going to go to Mongolia. It's cold there...I'm a Minnesotan I can handle that. And they have lots of horses so that works out well. So that's my plan God. I'm going to go to Mongolia as a vet to share who you are. Ok. Talk to you later."
(Aside: Since then I have learned so much about who God is, who I am because of him, and so much more about what it means to live cross culturally with the purpose of sharing who Jesus is. I now realize, that really I should have asked God what his plans for my life were...his will and plans above mine. He knows what is best for me in life, he knows the things he has planned for me to grow me and to bless me. None the less, that is what I told God at that point. All I knew about Mongolia was that it was cold there and they had nomadic herdsmen with livestock and horses that I could probably help take care of.)
I now know that it doesn't matter what I, or anyone else does "professionally" in life...God can work through anyone no matter their background or specific niche in life. He gave me my talents, my heart's passions on purpose. Though people are immeasurably valuable to God...he loves animals too. He cares about them deeply as well and values people who take care of them. ("The righteous man [a person morally right or acting in accord to moral or divine law] takes care of the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked [morally very bad] are cruel" - the 12th chapter and the 10th verse in the book of Proverbs in the Bible. Oh there are so many parts of the Bible in which I see God's concern and plan for the animals! It makes me smile every time! I could go on...but back to Mongolia...) When I realized that God loved what I loved...I was suddenly free from needing to justify my career choice in people's eyes...God wasn't going to judge me for being a vet, so it didn't matter what people said. And yet...I still wanted to be a veterinarian overseas and share Jesus with other cultures. That was still in my heart too.
Fast forward to my freshmen year of college. In December of 2006, I attended a conference called "Urbana". (for more information check out www.urbana.org). There were several hundred "missions organizations" there too. (Basically groups who are geared on sending people with all kinds of gifts, passions, and niches around our country and the world to use those passions to serve communities practically while showing them how Jesus loves them and their culture.) One afternoon of the conference, I set out to explore the different organizations. There was a whole category for "medical missions", but as usual, they were all geared for human medicine. I figured I could find some organization who took people in their chosen vocations and found places for them to practically serve people in that field while also telling them about Jesus.
Instead, my mind and world exploded. I discovered that there was a group there called Christian Veterinary Mission (CVM). (My thought at reading their name: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I had no idea that they even existed before that week. I went to their little booth and got just about every ounce of information they had available. Here...here was a group of people who were doing just what I had dreamed of. (For now it was a dream...a part of my heart, not just a justification anymore.) They specialize in empowering veterinarians to use their profession to serve and honor God...whether here in the States or overseas. Whether encouraging their staff in a pet hospital or leading Bible studies with farmers in South America...they were all about bringing veterinary medicine and God together. Oh my word. Of course I asked them where they had vets stationed around the world. To my utter shock and joy the lady at the table, told me that in addition to countries in Africa, South America, etc...they just so happened to have a handful of vets serving in Mongolia. (My thoughts at that moment: (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whaaaaa????? You're kidding. God....hey God!!...do you see this? This is crazy! Remember how I picked Mongolia almost randomly...um...whoa. What if I could go? Why are you bringing this up again? Can I go?This is SO cool!) Mongolia is a somewhat obscure country to many of us in America. It isn't nearly as familiar as say Australia or even France. Not to mention that as far as "missions agencies" go...it's not a very popular place to send "missionaries". I mean, there are several groups who do have American missionaries in Mongolia...but not nearly as many as countries like China, Kenya, Haiti, etc...I think you get the idea. The fact that there was a veterinary specific group who already had a handful of vets in Mongolia of all places blew my mind.
Of course, nothing is perfect they say. I did find out that as an undergraduate student, they really didn't have any opportunities for me to go with them overseas. I wasn't a medical professional or even a veterinary student. Most of their work is of course, medical in nature, so it made sense that I wouldn't be able to go with them until I was at least in vet school. Still though, I was more excited than anything! How delightfully strange that they should serve in Mongolia of all places!
Once I got home from the conference, I went online to their website to explore their organization even more. What I found, brought me to tears in front of the computer screen. Here was an organization that was specific for veterinarians who wanted to be missionaries overseas...and happened to do a lot of work in Mongolia...not just with livestock but also with companion animals (like dogs and cats)...and worked with the local Mongolian vet school teaching English to Mongolian vet students and then studying the Bible with them too...and had a housing arrangement for single woman so that they wouldn't have to walk home in the dark alone so that they could have a safe community to be a part of.
That may seem interesting and all to you reading this, but let me tell you what it meant to me. Basically. If I could have picked, if I could have designed my perfect "missionary" opportunity for myself...that was exactly what it would have looked like. It was perfect. It was as if God had tailored this situation exactly for me. And so I cried. I remember pleading with God: "Please. Oh God please let me go. This is exactly what I want to do. This is so unbelievably perfect.Why did you show me this amazing thing...is it so that I will go there someday? Or is it too good to be true? Please...please let me go someday." If I could work in Mongolia, taking care of dogs and cats, leading Bible studies with Mongolian students and living with them...I wasn't entirely sure what could be better.
But wait...it gets better. Remember how CVM really can't take every day people on trips to work with them because of the medical nature of their work? Well that is true probably 98% of the time. Unless of course someone wanted to go to Mongolia. Because in Mongolia, there were ways and opportunities for even non-vets to serve and contribute. If a person wanted to go on a trip with CVM, the trip often has a start date and end date depending on when the long term missionaries had needs to fill (teaching continuing education classes for example). Unless of course, someone wanted to serve in Mongolia. In that case, there were opportunities and openings year round. (Do you see how almost creepily perfect this was shaping up to be?). So basically, as a person not even admitted to vet school yet...Mongolia was one of the very few places I could have gone. As far as scheduling went...well, that was the best scenario ever - year round openings. Once again I pleaded with God to let me go, to make a way for me to serve there someday.
And then I got distracted. I still had 3 years of college to get through. After that, I hoped I would have four more years of veterinary school. I supposed that during one of those summers I could investigate going to Mongolia. I couldn't go during the school year, so that was my best bet. However, I focused on gaining clinical experience during one summer to buff up my application for vet school. Another summer I had to stay in Colorado to gain residency. The summer after I graduated college I went to China. There just wasn't time for Mongolia amidst the other things I was prioritizing. I think God knew. I think he was patiently waiting.
In December of 2009 (I was a senior in college), I learned I had been denied admission to veterinary school. My "Plan B" was to get a job in a vet clinic, gain experience there, and reapply. In December 2010 (after reapplying to vet school) I was again denied admission. At this point, it dawned on me that the soonest I could start vet school (after reapplying a third time, and waiting until Dec. 2011 to find out if I was admitted) would be August of 2012. That was 18 months away from where I was. That's a long time. I began to wonder what I was going to do with that time. Perhaps...perhaps I could go to Mongolia. I had no family of my own to hold me back, no other obligations to fulfill. It was at least worth a shot. So I e-mailed CVM, and told them the short version of this story. "Could I please come to Mongolia?"
Well, the rest you may have already guessed! They were more than happy to have me come teach English for about 8 months (and work with the dogs, cats, and livestock occasionally)! So that, is how God brought me to Mongolia. It's a little crazy, but I'm fairly certain this is where I am supposed to be right now. It all just adds up. I don't really believe in coincidences. I believe in weird things happening and adding up because God is doing stuff and planning out our next steps and opportunities. That's one way he "speaks" to me and shows me who he is. I believe that when I was in high school, he knew I was going to pick Mongolia randomly...he knew that in advance so he had this opportunity all ready in advance for me to discover. Kind of like finding candy on an Easter Egg Hunt. I followed the little trail of hints and clues and now I have the opportunity of my life. God does stuff like that. Sometimes it isn't as hugely obvious...but him letting us meet specific people, opening certain jobs for us, even allowing us to go through pain...all of it is part of his master plan. It's like a puzzle. I can only see the pieces that connect to me...but he can see the picture on the box. I don't know what other "pieces" will fall into place for me, but right now I'm in Mongolia! :)
